Otto B. “Buz” DiVosta, Jr. (1934- ) was born in Stamford, Connecticut, and moved to south Florida with his family when he was twelve. At twenty, DiVosta married Betty J. Schmidt(1935-) and designed his first house; at twenty-two, he started a rock lath contracting business.
In 1958 the DiVostas settled in Jupiter, where they built 300 houses through the 1960s, including many on Jupiter Island. They formed Burg and DiVosta with Clifford Burg in 1975, when they imported Moduplex, a French concrete building system. The company was able to build townhouses in just 47 days due to using this cast-in-place method, pre-assembling major parts of the house, hiring suppliers and workmen in-house, and limiting buyers’ choices.
Garden Lakes, one of the company’s first townhouse communities, sold out in one day in 1978. After buyers camped out overnight for the opportunity to purchase a unit at The Bluffs of Jupiter in 1984, the company used a lottery system. By 1989, when Burg left and the company became DiVosta and Company, it was a $105 million-per-year business with 800 employees.
DiVosta’s focus on efficiency and quality control resulted in what he called “Customers for Life,” who bought one DiVosta home after another.He built much of Jupiter’s 2,000-acre Abacoa community, where the first neighborhood, New Haven, was so successful, DiVosta had to use a lottery once again for buyers to choose their homes.
In 1998 DiVosta sold his company to Pulte Home Corp., which continued to use the trademarked DiVosta Building System; he remained as president during the transition. Over forty-plus years, DiVosta used his innovative methods to build about 30,000 townhouses and houses in Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie Counties. He continued in development with Fort Pierce Building Company. Divosta was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush in 2002 to the Destination Florida Commission, and in 2007 he was inducted into the Gold Coast Builders Association Hall of Fame.